1. Technical Field
The present invention relates to detection systems and, more particularly, to detection of hazardous materials and situations.
2. Background Art
Hazardous material response teams are equipped with Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear, and Explosive (CBRNE) sensors from a variety of vendors. While some of these sensors are cutting-edge, others have been around for decades, originally designed for mounting on tanks on the battlefield. The sensors are usually bulky, have poor or limited connectivity capabilities, and have difficult to read output displays.
Typically, each sensor has a proprietary interface with unique settings and alarm levels, and most require the user to visually check the sensor reading on a periodic basis to build a mental model of any trends observed. The workload associated with managing these devices can quickly distract the response team from other critical aspects of the mission, resulting in increased exposure to dangers and decreased effectiveness.
Additionally, each sensor type may have its own communications mechanism, which increases complexity, cost, power consumption, etc. It also introduces more custom interfaces that must be monitored in the command post, which makes it that much more difficult to plan, train, and deploy in response to CBRNE threats. Because each sensor vendor has a proprietary and closed solution, it is not easy to aggregate multiple sensors into a cohesive system.
Most sensors do not have network connectivity, and may only have local connectivity such as RS-232, IR-DA, or even a line-level output (high/low). Another device must interpret the sensor readings and provide this information to the rest of the network. Often the message specification for communicating with a sensor is proprietary or limited in functionality, making it difficult to fully configure and monitor the sensor.
All of these issues make it difficult to design, deploy, or use sensors. This limits the widespread adoption—especially in situations where they are needed most, such as responding to actual CBRNE threats and protecting public events. Thus, there is a need for better detection and monitoring systems.